Three couples tell how social services falsely accused them of harming their child – story in the DAILY MAIL…

After two traumatic miscarriages, on New Years Eve 2003, Heather Toomey (right with her family) 34, gave birth to a much-wanted second son, Sean. In early 2004 he became ill and was rushed to hospital suffering from a brain haemorrhage.

Whilst in hospital doctors decided that the only explanation of their son’s condition was that he had been shaken. As parents they were both insistent that there would be a medical explanation, but social services and the Police were called in.

After interrogation of both parents, the police decided there wasn’t any case to answer but a nightmare still ensued when social services threatened to have both children adopted.

The parents had to move out of their own home, their children had to live with relatives and both parents were subjected to scrutiny as social services accused them of shaking their baby.

Eventually after many reports – which all come back from psychologists saying they were excellent parents – the family were put on a supervision order for a year, when their lives returned to normal.

In fact, the family only discovered Sean suffered from a bleeding disorder that would have caused the haemorrhage when aged seven he had a severe nose bleed. It turned out Heather suffers from the same condition (Storage Pool Disorder) but although she’d been to the doctors in the past with bleeding problems, it just hadn’t been diagnosed.

Heather, an IT manager and husband Darron never believed such a nightmare could happen to them. They were too ashamed to even tell people at the time – Heather admits before this she used to think there was ‘no smoke without fire’.

It took a huge toll on their marriage – Heather believes many couples would split over something like this – and they had no-one to turn to.

She feels extremely lucky that her parents were able to care for their children and did not end up adopted as then they would never have got them back.

… the story went over three pages…

Heather and Paul Toomey were joined in the Daily Mail article by Amy Garland and her ex partner Paul Crummey and Christine Butcher and partner Pete Jensko. Both couples had also been falsely accused by social services of harming their child. Thankfully their nightmares are now over – but none of the couples have ever received an apology.

They hope telling their harrowing stories will help others who find themselves falsely accused by social services and the Police of child abuse. Heather has written a book about her family’s ordeal. When truth no longer Matters is available from Amazon or Heather’s website: www.searchfortruth.co.uk

Heather came to Featureworld to gain publicity for her book, which was plugged at the bottom of the feature – and her story was developed into a special report for the Daily Mail. If you have a story you believe needs national coverage, then contact us using the form to the right of this page >>

Author: Alison Smith-Squire

Alison Smith-Squire is a media agent selling stories to newspapers, magazines and TV for the ordinary person. She runs website Featureworld.co.uk and online writers' ezine, sellyourstoryuk.com
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